Mobile communication devices, including cellular phones, smart phones and other wireless communications devices that are able to communicate with a cellular network have become ubiquitous. These mobile devices may be used to place a call to an emergency services dispatcher when the user of the mobile device is in an emergency situation. The call to the emergency services dispatcher is often placed to a common number such as, for example, 911, 999 or 112, which are routed to an emergency call center.
When a call is received from a mobile device at an emergency call center, it is desirable to include location information for the call that may be used to help an emergency worker (dispatcher) locate the mobile device and its user. Unfortunately, many mobile devices are not equipped to provide this location information or, if they are equipped to provide the location information, for example with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, the location information may be temporarily unavailable.
Solutions have been proposed to deal with this problem, which have included using triangulation from cell towers to determine an estimate of the mobile device's position. Other techniques have been applied to determine the location of mobile devices connected to a wireless network, such as a Wi-Fi™ network using the location information of neighbouring access points. Although these techniques may provide a partial solution to the problem of providing location information for a mobile device, improvements to this technology remain highly desirable.